Roger Federer has five clay matches under his belt this year and will make his first French Open appearance since 2015. Federer has had his moments this year, but he also pulled out of Rome due to a leg injury, so that’s certainly worth watching early in this tournament. Federer says he’s fully recovered from his injury, but I like to let the play decide that when it comes to betting. If he looks good and is moving well, Federer is certainly somebody who can make a deep run and would be worth consideration for a future bet. Federer hasn’t lost the first round of a grand slam since the 2003 French Open. Federer has won four of his last six matches on clay court.

Lorenzo Sonego hasn’t won a main tour match since Monte Carlo and is coming off a loss in Geneva where he lost back-to-back tiebreaks and struggled with his second serve. The good news for Sonego is that he’s been competitive even in his losses and he’s won two of his five career grand slam matches, so while he may lack long-term experience, he has held his own in a small sample size. Sonego will be a huge underdog to win this match, but he’s certainly not a first round pushover to overlook. Sonego looks to make the second round of a grand slam for the third time in his career. Sonego has split his last six matches on clay court.

There’s no match history between these two players.

Sonego is probably going to lose this match in straight sets for obvious reasons such as the lack of experience on the big stage and not playing top tier players much. Experience matters on the biggest of stages and Sonego is still wet behind the ears. Federer says he’s healthy, and I’m sure the crowd support is going to be massive given that he hasn’t played in this tournament in years.

Randy Chambers has been with Sports Chat Place since 2014 and covers everything from the NFL to WNBA and tennis. Nobody works harder in this business in terms of content produced and amount of sports covered. Formerly a lead college football writer with Bleacher Report and has had his work featured at Fox Sports, CBS Sports and various other outlets.

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